


Either Way

by tobiyos



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Canon Compliant, Explicit Sexual Content, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Minor Angst, background shiho/ann, established ryuji/persona 5 protag, mishima trauma noises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:41:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25597471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tobiyos/pseuds/tobiyos
Summary: "We thought you’d want to go. Out. With us.”Mishima looks confused for a second, like a cloud has passed over his face, and he glances back and forth between Ren and Ryuji like they’re speaking to him in a different language. "Yeah, that sounds fun! I’ve been looking for a new mouse actually, and I am an expert at third wheeling, if I do say so myself.”Ren freezes.Wait, no—Or; Ren and his boyfriend try and ask their classmate out on a date. It goes about as smoothly as things in their lives usually do.
Relationships: Kurusu Akira/Mishima Yuuki/Sakamoto Ryuji, Mishima Yuuki/Persona 5 Protagonist, Mishima Yuuki/Persona 5 Protagonist/Sakamoto Ryuji, Mishima Yuuki/Sakamoto Ryuji, Persona 5 Protagonist/Sakamoto Ryuji
Comments: 4
Kudos: 74





	Either Way

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I really wanted to write a cute date fic for these three, but y'know... eleven thousand words later and I guess I did that^^ I draw on a lot of the same headcanons when I'm writing so Technically you could read this as a precursor to [Cram Session](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25359409)
> 
> Enjoy!

If he’s being honest, Ren thinks his boyfriend kind of rules.

He’s sweet, and pretty—so, _so_ , pretty, with the pretty golden color of his bleach blonde hair and the cute points to his sharp teeth. He’s got a pretty face and a pretty mouth and pretty eyelashes and hands and legs, and Ren feels like he’s caught lightning in a bottle whenever Ryuji even _thinks_ about looking his way.

It helps, also, that Ryuji also has as gigantic a crush on Mishima as Ren does.

And it’s never really been a _thing_ with them. They talked about their mutual feelings for _him_ before they were even dating, and Ren just accepts it as a way of life as far as their relationship is concerned. Sometimes Ryuji whispers about Mishima’s hands when his fingers are sliding up Ren’s side, and it _works_.

It’s not really a problem, even on days like these, when Ryuji comes flying into Ren’s classroom as soon as the bell rings, like the last few hours he hasn’t spent with his arms thrown over Ren’s shoulders have been torture. Coincidentally, it’s Ryuji that always finds Ren first, in the class Mishima also belongs to.

“Ew!” Ann squeals when Ryuji comes barreling past the doors and straight into Ren’s arms. Ren laughs as Ryuji presses little kisses to his face and tries not to flush when Ryuji finally lands one on his mouth, chaste and dry as it is. “You two are kind of gross, y’know!” Ann protests, covering her eyes like she’s watching her two very embarrassing parents cuddle in public.

“Don’t be homophobic, Ann,” Ren says, even though he’s _told_ Ryuji not to be so openly affectionate when they’ve just barely moved down the priority list for gossip. Some of their classmates are staring, Ren notices, minus one Mishima Yuuki, who is staring down resolutely at his empty desk, looking particularly warm.

“Ryuji,” Ren says gently, pressing his hands against his boyfriend’s face, and Ryuji finally relents with the kissing, opting instead to turn around and seat himself comfortably in Ren’s lap, turning to Ann with something or other he has pulled up on his phone. Ann rolls her eyes but leans forward anyway, a small smile tugging up at the edges of her mouth as she tries to see whatever Ryuji is showing her.

Ren hooks his chin on Ryuji’s shoulder and glances in Mishima’s direction, notices him fiddling with his phone for a moment or two before he finally looks up. Ren catches his eye and smiles, though it’s half pressed into Ryuji’s shoulder. He watches Mishima’s gaze dart around like he’s trying to find whoever Ren is smiling at, and then looks back like he’s shocked it’s him. Ren raises a hand in greeting anyway, just to hammer home that _yes,_ _I’m talking to you_ and Mishima waves back tentatively.

“Huh? Who are you waving at?” Ryuji asks when he feels Ren’s hand leave his side, and his gaze darts around before it lands on Mishima. “Yo!” he yells across the classroom, and Ren can hear the grin in his voice, imagine the way Ryuji’s smile lights up his face. “Mishima! What’s up?”

Mishima’s face takes on the little wide-eyed look he’d gotten earlier, and he waves again, color flooding into his face. And as pretty as Ren thinks Ryuji is, Mishima nearly overtakes him, even with his messy and oddly colored hair, the little nervous flit to his eyes. Ren squeezes Ryuji’s waist, and feels Ryuji’s laugh roll through where his back is pressed to Ren’s chest.

“Earth to the lovers,” Ann says, waving a hand near Ren’s face. She’s got a tiny pout on her face, like she’s been trying to catch their attention for way too long. “Are we doing thieves stuff today?”

Ryuji cuts his answer off with a fast, “Nah, we got plans.”

Ann’s pout slips into a little frown. “You didn’t forget about that request we got the other day, right? The one about that girl’s ex threatening to break up her new relationship? I’m kind of worried about it. She said the girl started threatening his life.”

Ren sighs. “Sorry, I still need to go get her name from that electronics shop. Haven’t had a ton of time lately.”

“You can blame me today,” Ryuji says, turning back so Ren can see the edge of his face. “Felt like we hadn’t seen each other outside of the metaverse in a while.”

“Don’t worry, I get it,” Ann says, standing. She hikes her school bag up her shoulder a little further, holds the strap too tight. “I’d be trying to take Shiho out somewhere nice if I could.”

Ren feels guilty then, like he’s complaining about losing a finger to someone without an arm. “Tell her I say hi, please?” he asks, instead of saying sorry. He knows Ann probably wouldn’t want to hear it.

“Will do, leader!” she says, starting to walk off with a wave. “And text me if you change plans!” Ren watches her twin tails turn the corner a second after she does.

Ren sighs and leans forward onto Ryuji’s shoulder. “Leblanc?” he asks.

Ryuji hums in lieu of saying yes. “Is Mishima still looking at us?”

Rationally, Ren knows it’s probably more normal that he’d be jealous of the way Ryuji arches into Mishima’s attention like a sunflower, but he can’t help the little prick of anticipation he feels when he pokes an eye past Ryuji’s shoulder and sees Mishima very quickly duck his head down like he wasn’t looking.

“Yep,” he chuckles into Ryuji’s shoulder.

“He’s so cute,” Ryuji sighs softly.

Ren pokes him in the side. “He probably wants to talk to youuu.”

Ryuji twists around in his grip, pokes Ren’s face in retaliation. “Nuh-uh! He’s definitely looking at _you_ ‘cause you’re all hot ‘n shit.”

“Nope!” Ren answers, and puffs his cheeks out. “He’s looking at you because you’re _sweet,_ and _handsome,_ and _funny_ —”

Ren’s bag shifts very suddenly from where it’s shoved in his desk. “Oh my god would you two _shut up?_ I should have asked Lady Ann to take me if I was going to have to deal with this all night!”

Ren presses a kiss to the tip of Ryuji’s nose. “Hm… that’s a good idea. Wanna spend the night?”

“Noooo!” Morgana protests.

“Lemme text my mom,” Ryuji answers, and covers the sides of their faces with one of Ren’s notebooks so he can kiss him properly.

\--

Ren waits for Sojiro to shout up from downstairs that he’s closing up for the night to say anything.

“We should ask Mishima out,” he suggests, and swings his feet off of Ryuji’s lap.

Ryuji, mid-level on Star Forneus and doing badly, barely has enough time to shoot Ren a half-surprised look before his eyes snap back on the screen. “Wait, like actually?”

“Yeah,” Ren says, and shoves his hands into his pockets to wait for Ryuji to get to a point he can pause. “Why not?”

Ryuji growls when his ship goes down and set the controller on the edge of the table that houses Ren’s shitty CRV TV. He stands up with a sigh and grabs a handful of the back of Ren’s shirt so he can follow Ren downstairs without looking where he’s going. “You’re serious?”

Ren nods and lets Ryuji trail him downstairs. Leblanc is quiet without Sojiro standing on guard and the TV rumbling away in the background. Ryuji lets go long enough to lean against the countertop and watch Ren duck out into the alley and flip the sign before he moves back inside and locks the door.

“Hold on,” Ryuji says from the counter. His arms are loosely crossed over his chest like he wants to say more, but he won’t quite look in Ren’s direction.

“What’s up?” Ren asks, and slips his arms back around Ryuji’s waist. He makes sure he keeps his distance enough to still be able to see Ryuji’s face.

“Is it… that easy? Like, we can just… tell him?”

Ren can’t quite suppress the eye roll. “Ryuji, that’s how we started dating.”

“Hey! I know that!” Ren relaxes a little when Ryuji’s arms come up to wrap around his neck. “Well… technically you kissed me and _then_ told me you liked me, which was very confusing by the way—“

“Right,” Ren laughs. “Sorry.” he presses a soft kiss to Ryuji’s cheek, feels some of the tension in Ryuji’s body melt away. “It can be that easy. If you want. I know we’ve talked about it, but we haven’t really _talked_ about it—it’s totally fine if you just want it to be me and you, too. I get it.”

“No, I wanna talk to him! I do, I’m just…” Ryuji presses their foreheads together. “I’m no good at this relationship shit, y’know? I’m always scared you’ll think I just don’t want _you_ anymore—which would be a lie, I always want you—but I’m… I think I’m tired of worrying over this.” Ren smiles as Ryuji’s arms wind tighter. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s ask him out.”

Ren smiles and lifts Ryuji up on the countertop to kiss him properly.

“You two have been down there for a long time!” Morgana shouts from upstairs. “You better not be having… relations!”

Ren laughs against Ryuji’s mouth. “Maybe you should go for a walk!” he shouts back.

Morgana groans.

\--

Ren doesn’t want to say they corner Mishima on the rooftop. They corner Mishima on the rooftop.

Ren is _nervous_ , for fucks, especially since he didn’t think they’d be asking Mishima out the _next day._ He’d gotten a text message the previous night, however, halfway through giving Ryuji a blowjob that had said something about Mishima wanting to meet with him about requests from the Phan-site tomorrow, and Ren had handed Ryuji his phone and said something vague about texting Mishima to meet them afterschool.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Standing on the roof by himself, however, waiting for his boyfriend to track Mishima down, makes Ren rethink all of the life choices that have led him to this point.

He jumps when the door to the roof creaks open—it always creaks open, Ren _knows_ that because they aren’t even supposed to be _up here_ —but it’s followed by the sound of Mishima’s ringing laughter and Ren takes two very deep breaths. It’s fine. Everything’s going to be fine.

“Amamiya!” Mishima says as he steps through the door behind Ryuji. Ryuji gives him a half nervous smile and a shaky thumbs up, and Ren feels like all of the tension drains out of his body so fast it leaves him lightheaded. Mishima looks exactly the same as he does every day, but his eyes are bright in the light of the sun, and that little endearing flush is creeping into his cheeks, and he looks so small next to Ryuji that Ren thinks he might actually pass out.

“You know you can call me Ren, right?” he says, instead of actually fainting, just because Mishima _can_ , if he wants to. (Ren wants him to.)

Mishima just smiles and rocks back and forth on his feet. “Maybe I will.” There’s a little hint of a challenge in his voice that makes Ryuji grin, even as he comes to lean against the table Ren is standing next to. Ryuji’s foot reaches out and knocks against the back of Ren’s calf, a gentle _get on with it._

“Um,” Mishima says, and his eyes look nervously at Ryuji for a second or two before they meet Ren’s again. “The… the thing you wanted to talk about? Sakamoto…”

“Yes!” Ren says, too loudly, and then cringes a bit and tries to reign it in. “Yeah, uh, we—” he looks at Ryuji a little desperately. “We actually. Ryuji and I were going to Akihabara today to…” _Technically, to go look for information on a potential target for the phantom thieves_ , his brain supplies helpfully. “…to look for some stuff? To fix up an old laptop of mine, and I know you’re… uh… We thought you’d want to go. Out. With us.” Holy _shit_ , Ren has never had that much trouble getting through a sentence before, and he vaguely thinks that Ryuji is smirking at him, a little bit of that Joker bravado wiped away for a moment of bullshit teenage anxiety.

Mishima looks confused for a second, like a cloud has passed over his face, and he looks back and forth between Ren and Ryuji like they’re speaking to him in a different language. The foot touches the back of Ren’s calf again and Ren shivers, afraid Mishima might actually say no, but then Mishima’s smile is lighting his face up again. He laughs. “Yeah, that sounds fun!” Ren and Ryuji both sigh audibly. Mishima takes the moment to shove his hand into his pocket and bring out his phone. “I’ve been looking for a new mouse actually, and I _am_ an expert at third wheeling, if I do say so myself.”

Ren freezes. _Wait, no_ —

Ryuji’s hand on his arm stops him from protesting the assumption. Ren looks over and sees he’s just kind of shaking his head. “Man, don’t worry about it. We’ll just… try again later.”

Ren has to keep from groaning out loud. He told Ryuji this was going to be easy, but ultimately forgot how _dense_ Mishima is. Whatever. They’ll figure it out.

\--

Ren bickers with Ryuji almost the entire train ride to Akihabara. Mishima sits beside Ryuji and pretends not to notice all of the whispering, tapping away happily at his phone.

“ _You’re an idiot—_ ” Ryuji hisses, when Mishima pulls them inside of an electronic store to wander off and look for accessories for his computer.

“ _No, you’re an idiot—”_ Ren hisses back, and spots the part of the store they’re looking for, though the man standing behind the counter doesn’t look like the teenage girl that was described on the Phan-site. Ren grabs Ryuji’s hand and whips around a corner like that’s not the direction they were headed in to begin with.

“What kinda lame excuse is ‘ _We’re going to Akihabara to look for stuff_ ’—"

“ _What was I supposed to say?_ ”

“Oh, I dunno, maybe ‘ _Hi, Mishima, me and my boyfriend wanna take you on a date’_ like a _normal_ person!”

Ren turns around just in time to walk directly into someone in the aisle ahead of him, feels the apology forming on his tongue before he looks down and catches the blue of Mishima’s hair. Mishima puts his hands up to catch himself against Ren’s chest, and then he’s blinking up at Ren’s face with wide eyes.

“Oh!” He says, a little surprised. Ren presses his lips together in a tight line and tries not to focus on Mishima’s hands against his shoulders when they slide a little higher. “I was looking for you two.”

Ren laughs too loud, and then stops too fast. “Us too! We were trying to find you to get out of here.”

Mishima’s eyebrows pull together in confusion before he looks down at Ren’s arms and then over his shoulder at Ryuji. “Weren’t you looking for computer repair parts, Amamiya-san?”

Ren laughs and steps back to run a hand through his hair. “They didn’t have what I was looking for.” Ryuji hums behind him like he wants to call Ren out on his bullshit. Ren sighs. “It’s a little frustrating.”

Mishima’s eyes brighten. “Oh! I know a place that has some more advanced upgrade parts. I could take you over there, i-if you want.”

“Yeah!” Ren says, and tries his best for a smile. “Yeah, that’d definitely help.”

Mishima walks in front of them as Ren tries to fend off the way Ryuji is trying to poke him, ribbing on him about how _the leader of the damn phantom thieves can’t even ask a boy on a date._ Ren swats at his fingers.

“Not my fault he’s got the density of a black hole,” Ren whispers. “All he ever wants to talk about is the Phantom Thieves with me, I’m surprised he even wanted to do this much.”

Ryuji rolls his eyes. “Might as well tell him I’m one too, maybe then he’ll go out with us.”

Ren suddenly has an idea. “Actually—”

Mishima stops walking abruptly, and Ren watches Ryuji walk right into his back. “Woah!” Ryuji gasps, and is leaning forward to grab Mishima’s arm to keep him from tipping over. “Sorry, dude!”

Mishima shakes his head like he’s trying to clear it out. “You guys sure are bad at looking where you’re going.”

Ryuji’s laugh is loud and genuine. “My bad.” Ryuji looks around. “Uh… you guys handle the boring tech stuff, yeah? I’m gonna grab a soda.”

Mishima leads Ren into the small store. It’s slightly dark, and there’s just one person inside, a girl wearing a too big sweater and a nametag standing behind the counter. She doesn’t look up when they come in, but Ren perks up when he sees her. She might be the person the thieves have been looking for.

“That’s Niwa, she’s the daughter of the owner.” Mishima whispers. Ren does his best not to shiver, even when Mishima’s nose touches his ear. “I can help you a little bit, but she’s really the person you’ll want to go to. She’s been kind of gloomy though, lately.”

Ren does his best to smile like Mishima’s not close enough to kiss. If he just leaned down a little more. “Sounds good.”

Mishima does his best to introduce them, though Ren can tell he’s on the edge of having one of his “talking to a girl” meltdowns. Ren makes small talk and asks about a computer part he already has. “H-how’s your girlfriend, by the way?” Mishima asks, and Ren raises an eyebrow in her direction.

“She’s fine,” Niwa murmurs. “She still thinks we’re broken up. I don’t know how many times I’m going to have to tell her we’re not.” She tucks the edge of one of her tangled curtain bangs behind an ear. Ren thinks she has a pretty face, even though her eyes seem to be consistently glued to the lower edge of her glasses. Oh, and the threatening to kill her ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend thing probably also lends itself to her unattractiveness.

Mishima laughs high and nervous. Ren tries to keep too much interest out of his voice when he asks, “What was your name again?”

Niwa’s nervous eyes flick up to his face. She doesn’t look like she trusts him. “Huh? Why do you need to know?”

Ren does his best to go for a charming smile. “If I need to come back, I’d like to know who to ask for. You’re very helpful.”

Niwa’s gentle skepticism melts away, replaced with a blush that turns her whole face red. She combs through some of her hair with her fingers. “…Yagami Niwa,” she mumbles and then ducks her head. “I’ll go see if we have that part now.” She shuffles away with her hands folded together.

“What was that about?” Mishima asks. He’s staring up at Ren like he’s seeing him for the first time. “Were… were you _flirting_ with her? _Amamiya-san!”_

Ren chuckles and throws and arm around Mishima’s shoulders. “What? Ryuji’ll let me flirt with _some_ people.” He leans in a bit closer, watches Mishima eyes dart from Ren’s own to his mouth and back again, almost guiltily. Ren can’t help the smile that crinkles his eyes. “He’d let me flirt with you,” he says quietly, and Mishima’s mouth snaps shut like whatever he could say needs to stay in his brain.

“Hey—” Mishima starts quietly, and Ren laments the way his body freezes up when Niwa comes back around the counter.

“Sorry, I don’t think we have the part you’re looking for,” she admits. She looks sheepish, like she’s embarrassed at the stock that’s out of her control.

Ren slides his fingers across the back of Mishima’s neck when he pulls away. “It’s no problem, I might be able to pull off the repairs without it.” Niwa is sufficiently apologetic, and Ren drags Mishima out of the store with one hand and opens up his text messages with the Phantom Thieves with the other.

“Did you get it?” Ryuji asks, when Ren pulls Mishima towards where he’s leaning against a vending machine.

“Yep,” Ren says breezily, and smiles down at his phone. “I also thought about the thing you said earlier.”

Ryuji raises an eyebrow in question before his phone buzzes in his hand.

\--

Mishima handles the metaverse as well as he handles anything else in their day to day lives, which is to say _poorly._ With plenty of enthusiasm, sure, but poorly nonetheless.

“Woah!” Ryuji shouts, pulling Mishima by the collar out of another shadow encounter.

“Sorry!” Mishima yelps, and latches back onto Ryuji’s arm. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just so dark.”

“That’s why I told you to stay _behind_ me,” Ren says, and continues along the rails.

Bringing Mishima into the metaverse may not have been Ren’s _best_ idea, but the face Ryuji had made when he’d suggested it into the Phantom Thieves’ group chat said otherwise. Ren should have thought about how well the ideas Ryuji typically agree to go.

The other thieves had been harder to convince, especially Morgana, who’d _told_ them it’d be rough without the Mona bus, but Ren had thought they could pull of a fairly easy shadow battle in the higher levels just the two of them. They’d gotten the request from before Yusuke even joined, and the earlier requests the easier, usually. It probably has something to do with cognition, though Ren doesn’t really care to look into it. Ann and Yusuke had been fine with taking up the request, which was really all Ren needed before he was explaining a few critical things to Mishima at the station and then tugging him into the Metaverse. Ann had posted the calling card to the site, and mementos had opened up the same way it always had.

“How much further?” Ryuji asks, slightly muffled by the skull mask. Ren glances back and sees Mishima is still staring up at it with wide eyes, like he’s not even sure if this is real. Ren thought this would be a good way to spend more time with Mishima since they’d finished up business in Akihabara, but he’s starting to realize they could have just, like, gone to dinner. He tries again to rationalize that Mishima might like them more if he knows they’re _the_ Phantom Thieves, but then he just feels bad that he’s profiting off of powers that are seemingly for helping people.

Ren goes for his third eye, feels something tug at his chest. “Another level. We’re close.”

“You guys do this all the time? This is how you’ve been handling the requests I give you?”

Ren shoots the chains crossed over the door and pauses as it slams open. He shrugs. “Yeah, usually. But we only go in about once a week.”

Mishima is breathless in his adoration, and Ren has half a mind to feel flattered.

“Shadow!” Ryuji shouts, before he’s pulling Ren back by the arm and taking off towards the stairs.

Mishima wheezes when they reach the next floor, and Ren rests a hand in a way he hopes is soothing on Mishima’s back. “I think I have a greater appreciation for everything the Phantom Thieves do for us,” he says, winded.

Ryuji laughs, even though he sounds a little breathless too.

Ren pushes them both forward with a hand on their backs. “Alright, alright, come on. Let’s get done and get out of here. I’d rather not get Mishima killed before—” Ren hears himself stop talking more than he actually chooses to. His face is burning.

“Before what?” Mishima asks, looking over his shoulder.

 _Before we actually get to take you on a date._ “Nothing,” Ren mumbles, and pushes them both forward a bit harder.

Shadow Niwa is hiding a few turns into the level, sitting with her arms around her knees and mumbling angrily. “Is… is that Niwa?” Mishima asks.

Ryuji nods, and Ren goes for his dagger.

That finally makes Niwa look up, her eyes bright behind the curtain of her dark hair. “Who are you?” she mumbles, and then her eyes catch on Ren. “Oh, you’re that boy from the store.” She struggles to get to her feet, swaying a little even when she’s upright. “You were cute,” she says, with a smile that doesn’t look any friendly. She stands similarly to the way she had in the store, slightly curled in on herself but it’s almost worse now, he arms limp at her sides and her shoulders rolled too far forward. “I’d love to make you mine.”

“Uh, hey!” Ryuji says, angrily. “He’s taken!”

Shadow Niwa’s face twists into one of disgust. “Taken, taken, everyone’s fucking _taken_ ,” she spits. “My own girlfriend thinks she’s _taken_ , like I don’t own her.”

“Y-you don’t own people!” Mishima says. Ren turns, wants to tell him that he needs to be quiet, stay out of the shadows radar but he’s pushing through the solid wall of Ryuji and Ren’s bodies to face shadow Niwa full on. Ren is increasingly feeling like this is a worse and worse idea. “You should respect that you’re not going to be able to have everything you want, y’know! Sometimes people just aren’t going to like you, and they’re going to like other people, and that’s… that’s okay!”

“Mishima,” Ryuji says quietly, obviously trying to reign Mishima back in before he gets himself hurt, but Ren can hear the slight concern to his voice. Ren thinks he sounds a little bit like Mishima is talking to a mirror instead of a shadow.

“ _Shut up,_ ” Niwa snaps, and reaches up to grab at her head like it’s hurting her. “Shut up, shut up! Nobody cares about me like she does, and I won’t let anyone else have her! I’ll kill him if I have to, I’ll kill everyone!” Her cognitive form bursts, and Ren shouts at Ryuji to move Mishima, and _fast._

Shadow Niwa is flighty and fights dirty, and for once Ren is glad it’s just him and Ryuji, because the combination of fire and ice she alternates between would be disastrous for Ann and Yusuke’s respective weaknesses. At least, that’s what Ren thinks, until he’s being shadowed by a persona he forgets can’t handle fire attacks, and he goes down on his ass.

“Joker!” he hears Ryuji shouting, but his vision is swimming, and it’s hard to keep his focus in one place. Ryuji pulls him to his feet, takes a hit trying to keep Ren from falling over, and Ren grits his teeth against the way their bodies knock together. He can hear shadow Niwa laughing.

“Fuck!” Ren shouts, and tries to push Ryuji off of him, but his arms feel like he’s taken a lightning strike to the spine. There are hands on Ren’s sides that aren’t Ryuji’s and Ren barely recognizes the sound of his own gun ricocheting off of the subway walls.

Shadow Niwa screams and Ren looks up just in time to watch Mishima close his eyes against the burst of light that lets him know Niwa is melting back into her human form. He’s holding Ren’s gun with two shaking hands, face tense, and Ren thinks he’s maybe the prettiest person on the planet after all.

“Guys!” Mishima yells, and ducks down to pull Ren and Ryuji off of each other. Ren leans against his shoulder and feels useless, grabs for the edge of Ryuji’s hand. Mishima is shaking where Ren is touching him. “I wanted to help so bad, I’m so sorry, I just didn’t want to get in the way—”

“It’s okay,” Ren says, doing his best to smile.

Distantly, he can hear shadow Niwa sobbing. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she cries. “Nobody cares about me, _nobody_ , but she did. I just wanted her to stay by my side forever. It was all that stupid boy’s fault, if he didn’t exist, I’d—”

“Who says she doesn’t still love you?” Mishima says. Ren looks up and watches his face set into gentle scorn. “You can love more than one person at a time, and even then, maybe she just wants to be your friend. If you like he so much, then be happy for her. Be happy she has a friend like you, and a boyfriend like the one she has.”

“You’re right,” Shadow Niwa says around a sniffle. “I’ll try being her friend if she’ll still have me. And I’ll apologize to her boyfriend.”

Ren watches Shadow Niwa fade into her treasure through Mishima’s eyes, watches the way his hair whips around when she explodes. He knows one of them needs to grab the treasure.

“Are you okay?” Mishima asks him, looking down. He still has that look in his eyes, like he’d raze mementos to protect Ren and Ryuji. Ren thinks he might be in love with him.

“I’m fine,” he croaks, suddenly choked up around emotions that make him feel like he’s drowning. He’d felt like this right when he and Ryuji had started dating, but he takes a moment to look at Ryuji and his chest feels tighter. Ren hopes he’s not crying.

“Sakamoto?”

Ryuji staggers to his feet long enough to grab the treasure. “I’m fine!” Ryuji calls, a grin splitting his face. He knocks against the side of his head with his knuckles. “A little banged up, but fine.”

“The next level is a rest area,” Ren says, rolling out of Mishima’s grip. He’d like to stay, but it’s probably best they get out of here before anything _worse_ comes to find them.

“You sure you’re okay to walk?” Mishima asks him, and the concern in his voice is making Ren _hurt._

Ren does his best to smile. “Nothing but some burns and a light concussion, probably.”

Mishima looks like he wants to say more but he just smiles, and Ren lets him and Ryuji carry him down to the rest area and prop him up on one of the seats. Ryuji digs through his pockets for some of Takemi’s medicine Ren keeps handy, just in case, and puts a hand on Ren’s knee. “Strip,” he says, voice even. “The worse of the burns are on your backs.”

Ren nods and starts slithering out of his thieves outfit. The rest area is kind of awkwardly quiet, Mishima sitting on the floor next to the seat Ren is in as he slips out of his jacket and has Ryuji help him out of the vest.

“Here, let me do it.” Mishima stands up to put a hand on Ren’s bare shoulder that feels like a shock. Ren watches him in the reflection of the glass. “You should probably sit down, Sakamoto.”

Ryuji hands off the medicine and stands off to the side in Ren’s field of vision. Ren sees him sigh, and mouth, just so Ren can see it, _I really wanna date him._

Ren nods, once, and turns sideways so Mishima can work the medicine into the bare skin of his back. Mishima’s hands are smaller than Ryuji’s, and a little rougher, surprisingly, but he works methodically, and Ren has to keep from sighing every time his thumbs press into a tight muscle.

“There,” Mishima says, and steps back. “I can do the burn marks on Sakamoto’s arms—" Ren turns around to Mishima’s eyes thrown in a different direction and the flush high on his cheeks. Before he can really think about what he’s doing, Ren is reaching out to grab Mishima by the wrist.

“Huh?” Mishima says, looking surprised. He looks from Ren to Ryuji and back, like he’s not quite sure of what’s going on.

“We like you,” Ren blurts.

“A lot,” Ryuji adds, taking the seat next to Ren.

Mishima is still looking at them like he doesn’t understand what they’re saying to him.

“We like you a _lot,_ ” Ren amends, and tugs Mishima closer gently. Mishima stumbles forward and stands quietly between the two of them, eyes still wavering. “Please go out with us.” He offers the other container of medicine like it’s a confession letter, watches Mishima’s eyes widen when he realizes what’s happening. He takes the medicine like he’s not sure what else to do.

“Oh.”

The rest area is silent for a few agonizing seconds, and Ren thinks Ryuji might be holding his breath which he only knows because he’s holding _his_ breath, and then Mishima sighs and shifts his hold on the medicine, before he slides down to sit on his legs. He reaches for Ryuji’s arms. “Um,” Mishima starts, as he starts to massage the medicine into Sakamoto’s arm. “You two are messing with me, right?” Ren flinches and Ryuji pulls his arm back a little, mouth open to interrupt him. “Sakamoto, you know how people used to ask me out as a joke in middle school. Did you think it would be funny to bring that back?”

“We mean it,” Ryuji insists, his voice steady. Mishima’s hands pause on his arms, and when they start moving again, he’s going slower. Ren wishes he could see his face.

“Oh,” he says again, quietly. “Sorry, I guess I’m not super good at handling…” he gestures vaguely. “Can you… give me some time to think about it?”

“Yeah, of course!” Ryuji says, at the same time that Ren says, “All the time you need.”

“Thanks,” Mishima says, and when he looks up, his smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

Ren gets them all back to the top floor in one piece, and Ryuji squeezes his hand when Mishima isn’t looking.

\--

Mishima misses the next two days of school.

The first day, Ren tries not to think too much of it, has lunch with Ann and Ryuji and they talk about nothing, he goes home with Ryuji after school and teaches Ryuji how to make curry in his apartment. He even gets a compliment from Ryuji’s mom, who ruffles his hair and tells him she’s glad he met her son.

He opens up a text conversation with Mishima while they’re watching a move and then closes it again. _All the time you need._

“We couldn’t have made him, like, drop out, right?” Sakamoto asks the next day, over lunch. They both keep throwing glances at Mishima’s empty desk like maybe he’ll materialize there if they stare hard enough.

Ann rolls her eyes. “Ryuji, nobody is dropping out of school just because they’re uncomfortable with a confession.” She points at him. “I think it would be easier to get you expelled, anyway,” she says around a bite of bread.

“Hey! It ain’t _easy_ to get me expelled—”

“I go tell Kawakami you _sneezed_ and she’ll be filing for harassment or something.”

Ryuji pouts, but looks like he feels a little bit better. Ren feels a little jealous of Ann for being able to cheer him up so well, but he likes Ryuji’s face free of the little concerned crease between his eyebrows.

“Oh, I checked the phan-site,” Ann adds, leaning over to pluck a chip out of the bag Ren has open. “It seems like that girl’s ex apologized and now they’re friends again.”

“That’s good,” Ren sighs. And then, before he can think better of it, opens his phone and pulls up his text messages with Mishima again.

 _The change of heart worked on Niwa._ He types. And then tacked on to the end, _Are you okay?_ He sends it without checking the screen again.

“Got any plans after school?” Ryuji asks him, pulling Ren out of staring into space.

Ren pouts. “Other than sulking about Mishima rejecting us? Not really.”

“It wasn’t a _rejection_ ,” Ryuji says, leaning over to try and kiss him.

“ _Not_ in front of me.” Ann snaps, a brightly painted nail pointed accusingly in their direction.

“Or me!” Morgana pipes up from inside of the desk.

“Hush,” Ren says in Mona’s direction, and then in Ann’s, “Homophobe.”

“I’m literally gay.”

“And also homophobic.” He kisses Ryuji just for the trouble. Ann rolls her eyes.

Ren’s phone buzzes the class before last, and he thinks it’s Ryuji sending him something he found online, but when he pulls his phone out under the desk he thinks his breathing stops when he sees Mishima’s little icon pop up.

 _I’m fine._ He’s said. _Actually, I’m sick. I got a fever after we went into mementos._

Ren lets out a relieved breath, even though he shouldn’t be happy the guy he has a crush on is sick. At least he’s not avoiding them.

 _Do you need anything?_ Ren texts back. He regrets it the second he hits send.

Mishima’s typing bubbles pop up and then disappear, and then pop up again. _No._

The relief Ren felt melts away into a cold kind of dread. Mishima _hates_ them, Ren knows it for sure now, and it’s like the floor has dropped out from underneath him and he’s been swallowed whole.

Another message from Mishima pops up. _But I want to see you. And Sakamoto._

Something warm and terrifying pops up in Ren’s chest as he texts back something that sounds too close to _yes, anything, everything_ and he thinks it might be hope.

Mishima texts Ren his address and Ryuji whoops when he tells him what Mishima’s text messages said. They stop at a convenience store on the way and grab basic sick bullshit, some juice and microwavable soup and a bag of candies for Ryuji, and then a bag of chips for Ren, and then a whole bunch of other snack for Mishima because they’re too scared to ask him what he like in case he changes his mind and tells them not to come.

Mishima lives a few stops past Ryuji’s apartment, in a small one-story house at the beginning of a neighborhood Ren has never seen before. Ren doesn’t feel nervous until he and Ryuji are stood at Mishima’s door, waiting for someone to come greet them.

“What if it’s his parents, oh god, Ryuji, I didn’t think about what to do if we meet his parents—”

“Dude,” Ryuji mutters, laughing a little. “Chill.”

“’ _Hi, I’m half of the boys currently trying to date your son and also I’m technically a criminal nice to meet you_ ’—”

The door opens to Mishima, standing wrapped in a large blanket and holding the edges shut under his chin with one hand. His face is red, eyes a little glassy. “Hi,” he says weakly, and Ren has the strange and very new impulse to gather Mishima up into his arms and just keep him there.

“Hi,” Ryuji says for both of them, and he lifts one of the bags he’s holding. “We brought, uh, stuff.”

Mishima lets them inside and Ren lets Ryuji lean on him as he slips his shoes off. Mishima’s house is warm and smells like him, and Ren wonders if his heartbeat is as loud to Ryuji and Mishima as it is inside of his head.

“Um, my big sister is out of town right now, so the house is empty, save for me.”

Ren turns to look at him and thinks Mishima might be flushing worse than he had when he’d come to the door. “You live with your sister?” He asks.

Mishima nods, and then winces and holds a hand up to the side of his head like rattling his brains around in his current state isn’t the best idea. “Y-yeah. My grandparents live down the road, so they’ve been checking in on me.”

“Wait,” Ryuji says, leaning over to rest a hand on the wall while he takes his other shoe off. “So, you’ve mostly been home alone while you had a _fever_?”

Mishima shrugs and then coughs, once. “It wasn’t so bad.” Ren catches Ryuji’s eye and nods at him. Ryuji hands over the plastic bags on his arm. “What—“ Mishima says, and then Ryuji is lunging forward and _actually_ lifting Mishima off of his feet, gathering him into a bundle of blankets and blue hair and the occasional yelp. “Sakamoto!” he squeals, like he’s a little affronted but a _lot_ embarrassed.

“No buts!” Ren half singsongs, twisting the plastic bags around in his grip. “Apparently no one has been here to take care of you, so we’re going to do it.”

“Whether you want us to or not!” Ryuji adds, taking a few shaky steps further into the house.

Mishima protests lightly as Ryuji carries him into the adjacent living room, setting Mishima down gently on the sofa. “Nope!” Ren hears as he drags the bags into the kitchen. “You’re literally going to lay there while we make sure you feel better.”

“I feel fi—” Mishima protests are caught on a cough.

“Shit,” Ryuji says, and Ren looks up from digging through the bags for soup and _not_ the third package of jelly candies they bought. “Do you have chills?”

“…just a little,” Mishima says, quietly.

Ren heats up the soup and listens fondly to the sound of Mishima and Ryuji arguing over Mishima’s condition. Apparently, he’d come home after they’d taken him into the metaverse and had woken up with a fever that his sister had helped him lower and then she’d had to leave for business.

“Am I going to have to feed you?” Ren asks, setting down the bowl he’s holding and standing over Mishima’s half prone figure on the couch. He’s still tucked inside of his blankets, though he’s leaning against the arm of the sofa and arguing with Ryuji.

“I _told_ you, I ate!”

“This morning!” Ryuji protests.

“That’s eating!”

Ren sighs. “If you eat the soup you can have your pick of the snacks we bought.” Mishima’s eyes brighten immediately, and then narrow once he’s realized that this is still just Ren and Ryuji trying to force food in him. “ _Only_ after soup.”

Mishima groans. “You guys are just like my sister.”

“Eat,” Ren says, and Mishima slides off the cushions to rest his cheek against the coffee table. Ryuji joins him on the floor and pokes him until he groans and puts a spoonful of food in his mouth.

He complains the whole time, but they eventually get enough food in him that Ren is satisfied, and then Mishima is happily digging through the convenience store bags for snacks, and he lands on some weird cookies Ren had bought on impulse. He falls asleep with his head on Ryuji’s shoulder.

“He’s out like a light,” Ryuji says, voice quiet took keep from waking him up. Late afternoon light is sliding in orange through the curtains in the room, and Ren reaches forward to gather up the soup bowl and an empty medicine package.

“He might sleep through the night,” Ren says, moving into the kitchen. “Do you think we should leave?”

“No way,” Ryuji calls after him. Ren turns back to see Ryuji lifting Mishima’s unconscious form and setting him down on the sofa. “You heard what he said. The best care he’s got right now is his grandparents down the street. We’ve got the day off tomorrow anyway.”

“I guess you’re right.” Ren moves back into the room, sits on the back on the sofa while Ryuji moves some of Mishima’s hair away from his face. Mishima makes a little humming noise in his sleep and crinkles his nose. “Would you have stayed even if he’d rejected us outright?”

Ryuji looks a little angry when he looks up. “What kind of question is that?”

“Sorry,” Ren wipes a hand over his face. “It’s just… everything with you was so straightforward. You’re kind of like a freight train. I’m just… thinking.”

Ryuji sighs. “Man, don’t ask me shit like that.” His voice gets quieter. “I don’t…” Mishima makes another soft sound in sleep that has Ryuji putting a hand on his forehead. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Ren curls up in Ryuji’s lap in the chair nearby, and they let Mishima sleep.

When Ryuji wakes him up, Ren knows it’s dark out, can see the moon through the curtains. Mishima is making noises in his sleep like he’s having an unpleasant dream. And then he’s gasping and rolling up into a sitting position.

“Amamiya? Sakamoto?” Ren is at his side in an instant. Ryuji sits on the other end of the couch so Mishima is sandwiched between them. He’s blinking at them blearily, like he thinks he might still be asleep. “You’re still here,” he says, voice breathy. Ryuji moves some of his hair out of his face again.

“Didn’t plan on going anywhere,” he says, and Ren smiles.

Mishima blinks a few times, and then shifts around a little bit. “I’m cold,” he says.

“I’ll go grab you some more blankets,” Ren says, going to stand up, but Mishima’s hand reaches out and grabs on to his hand before he can get far.

“Don’t go,” he says, and then again, quieter, “Please, don’t go anywhere.”

Ren pauses and then lowers himself back onto the couch, like he didn’t really plan on going anywhere in the first place. Mishima isn’t looking at him, face shadowed by his hair and the edge of the blanket. “Okay.”

As best they can, Ren and Ryuji slide in under the blanket with Mishima, and Ren thinks Mishima might still have a fever because of how warm his skin is against Ren’s side. He feels Sakamoto’s hand bump his hip as he winds an arm around Mishima’s waist and pulls him closer. Mishima is still holding his hand, skin feverish.

“Remember… Remember how I told you guys I needed some time? With… um… that you like me?” Ren nods, and gives Mishima’s hand a gentle squeeze. Mishima laughs humorlessly. “I lied. I, um,” his voice goes so quiet Ren can barely hear him, “I’ve kind of… had feelings for both of you for a while. I just didn’t…” His voice chokes up near the end, like he’s barely keeping from breaking down. Ren leans heavier into his side, trying to encourage him to keep talking without interrupting. “I thought— Y-you’re both so cool, a-and you’re _Phantom Thieves_ , y’know? Like you guys are just… out there changing the world and being in love with each other, I didn’t know—” He stops again and takes a rattling breath. “I thought if you were messing with me I’d die on the spot. I should have been so happy, but I didn’t believe you at all, and then Amamiya texted me and I thought if you came all the way out to see me you’d really meant it, but then I didn’t believe if you’d actually come or if it was some _stupid_ fantasy I hallucinated because I’m sick out of my mind. But you’re still here and I just—I don’t know what to think! My brain is scrambled and I _hate_ it—"

Ren wants to say something encouraging and heroic about how he feels about Mishima, the way he’s everything Ryuji and Ren want, and the best thing that’s ever happened to them, but his throat isn’t working and he’s just watching Mishima cry into the dark until Ryuji is moving, and pulling them both face first into his chest.

“Mishima,” Ryuji says firmly, hands fit securely on Mishima’s jaw. And then he kisses him, and Ren feels like if had any more space in his heart for Ryuji Sakamoto, it gets filled in one easy moment.

Mishima pulls away, and Ren can’t see his face, _needs_ to see his face, but it’s only long enough for him to stutter out, “Wait, I’m sick—” before Ryuji is pulling his face in for another kiss.

“We like you,” Ren says into Mishima’s hair, hears the little noise of protest that quickly gets chased down and smothered by Ryuji’s mouth. “We like you so much more than you know, can’t stop talking about you even when it’s just me and Ryuji.” Ren would say something stronger, would whisper _I love you, I love you, I love you_ into Mishima’s hair if he didn’t already feel like he was holding a small flitty animal, and that _I love you_ might just be the crash that scares him away. “We promise, we aren’t going anywhere.” Ren wraps his arms around Mishima and Ryuji tighter for emphasis, probably crushing the two of them in the process, but finds he doesn’t really care, so long as Mishima is still in his arms.

He hears Mishima’s quiet, labored breathing when Ryuji pulls away, but keeps his face buried in Mishima’s hair. “Okay,” Mishima says quietly. And then, “Sorry.”

Both Ren and Ryuji sigh, and Ren leans away to give Mishima some space, though he can see Ryuji isn’t letting him go yet. Mishima turns around in his arms so that Ren can see his face, spots the tear tracks down his face.

Ren leans forward again, to wipe away the water under his eyes and down his cheeks but tilts his head in consideration when Mishima’s eyes slide closed. “I’m gonna kiss you now, okay?” It’s not really a question, but Ren still waits for Mishima to nod, before his eyes fly open in alarm.

“Wait, no, Amamiya, I’m sick—”

Ren catches the rest of his sentence in a kiss, and Mishima tenses up at first contact, before he melts back into Ryuji’s chest like all the fight has left him. Ren holds the side of his face with one hand and feels grateful that Mishima is done running from them, before he presses in a little harder, presses gently at Mishima’s lips with his tongue. He feels more than hears Mishima’s sigh through the hand he has pressed to Mishima’s chest.

Ren moves away, watches Mishima’s eyes for anything still panicky, any sign that he needs more encouragement because Ren will give it, will give it a thousand times if that’s what Mishima needs and loves him so much Ren worries it’s palpable. But Mishima’s eyes are just half lidded with sleep, still a little red from the crying. He’s fine. Ren can’t help the way he swipes his thumb across Mishima’s skin again. He’s fine.

“I think my chills are coming back,” Mishima laughs.

Ryuji sighs, but Ren can see he’s smiling. “C’mon, let’s get you to bed.”

“Ah!” Mishima says, when Ren leans away so Ryuji can pick him up again. Mishima probably isn’t all that that light, and Ryuji is just showing off, but he’s not about to complain if Mishima’s not. And he definitely isn’t, considering the way Mishima blushes and buries his face in Sakamoto’s chest. “Wait! Isn’t this kind of fast?” He says nervously.

Ren laughs and grabs the blanket from where it’s slipped off of Mishima’s shoulders and trails Ryuji where he walks around the back of the couch.

“Dude,” Ryuji says with a grunt, bouncing Mishima so he sits more comfortably in Ryuji’s arms. “I wasn’t gonna fuck you, I think you should probably get some more sleep.”

“Ah!” Mishima says again, hands gripping tighter onto the fabric of the front of Ryuji’s chest.

Ren can’t keep the laugh out of his voice. “Unless you want us to.”

Mishima murmurs something unintelligible into Ryuji’s chest that makes Ryuji shake him again. “Come onnn! Ren’s kidding. Bedroom, man.”

“First room on the right,” Mishima murmurs, and Ren feels strangely light as he follows Ryuji into what he assumes is Mishima’s bedroom, decorated with a smattering of posters and a tv in one corner, bracketed in by several CDs Ren can see have the names of different local high schools written on them.

Ren opens his mouth to ask about them, but Mishima is being lowering into his bed, eyes half closed already. Ryuji climbs over him to lean up against the wall and Ren sits on the edge of the bed to cover Mishima in the blanket he’s holding. Mishima really looks like he’s trying to stay awake, though Ren knows between his energy being drained from his fever and the medicine Ren brought, it’s probably pretty difficult.

Ryuji pulls Mishima up against his chest. “Dude, calm down. We’ll be here when you wake up.”

Mishima yawns and tries to sit up, but goes down when Ren puts a hand to his chest. “You don’t have to,” he says, and his eyes slide over to where Ren is looking at him. “Be here, I mean. I already told you I liked you—you don’t have to stay.”

Ren sighs and pushes Mishima close enough to Ryuji that he has enough room to lay down. It takes some maneuvering, but eventually they all manage to cram their way into Mishima’s bed, even if Mishima is half on top of Ren.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Ren says, and pushes a hand through Mishima’s hair.

“Okay,” Mishima sighs, but he sounds more relieved than anything. He falls asleep with his hand curled over Ren’s chest, and Ren dutifully follows his example.

\--

Ren doesn’t know how long he sleeps, but he does wakes up to Mishima pressing his face into his neck, hand splayed out over Ren’s chest. Ren cards a few fingers through his hair and hums, lets Mishima know he’s awake. “What time is it?” Ren asks.

“Mhm,” Mishima says eloquently, still not opening his eyes.

Ren notes that the sky outside is starting to lighten, even if the sun isn’t out yet. He peeks over Mishima’s head at Ryuji, spooning Mishima with his face buried so snug into Mishima’s neck that Ren can’t even see his eyes. He should definitely text Sojiro, let him know Ren didn’t die in a ditch last night, but Mishima’s hand tightens and relaxes on his chest, and Ren thinks moving him would be an actual crime, and well, he’s already on probation.

Ryuji makes a half snore and then choking noise before Ren sees the edge of his hair move like he’s trying to bury his face deeper in Mishima’s neck. “Whazzup?” He groans blearily, before Ren feels him tug Mishima closer to his body. Mishima’s eyes open at that, blinking up at Ren, and then down at where Ryuji is holding him around his hips.

“There’s two of you,” Mishima says, like he’s dreaming, words slurred around the edges.

“There usually are,” Ren whispers.

“Fuckin’,” Ryuji says, and his hold on Mishima tightens. “You smell weird, Ren.”

Ren laughs quietly and stretches his arms out over the edge of the bed so that he doesn’t accidently knock Mishima or Ryuji in the head. “Not me.”

“I smell weird?” Mishima asks, and he sounds better. Less sick, probably.

“Nah,” Ryuji says around a yawn. “Just don’t smell like Ren. I like it.”

“Oh, so you don’t like the way _I_ smell,” Ren huffs.

“Man, shut up.”

Ren laughs and uses the hand—that’s slightly numb, he realizes—to card through the back of Ryuji’s hair. Mishima is still blinking up at him with wide eyes, looking a little less sleepy, and Ren tries not to fight the lazy grin that spreads across his face.

“How are you feeling?”

Mishima nods a little bit. “Better, I think. My, um, chills are gone.”

Ren leans down a little bit and bumps their foreheads together. “That’s good.”

“Can—” Mishima starts, and then stops himself abruptly. Ren just keeps their foreheads pressed against each other, quietly enjoying the way Mishima’s skin feels now that his temperature seems to have dropped back to normal. “Can I kiss you?” Mishima mumbles, so quiet Ren barely hears him.

“I thought you were sick,” Ren says, quietly amused.

“No, no, you’re right , never mind—” Mishima says, his words starting to string together in a panic when Ren cuts him off with a soft kiss.

Mishima makes a quiet sound, caught off guard, and Ren tilts his face up and kisses Mishima slow and practiced, in a way that would make Ryuji nip at his lips and insist he speed it up. Mishima melts instead, the hand he had on Ren’s chest moving down over his stomach like he wishes he could be everywhere on Ren at once.

“Okay?” Ren asks when he pulls away. Mishima just nods, eyes still shut as tight as they can get. Mishima’s hand tightens on his chest like he wants to say something, but when nothing happens, Ren leans in again.

“I wanna kiss Mishima,” Ryuji murmurs, and Ren has a sneaking suspicion he’s still half asleep.

Ren drops away from Mishima’s lips, presses his mouth to the edge of Mishima’s jaw. “I think you should,” Ren says, and glances up to catch Mishima’s expression pull tight like he’s nervous, the hand on Ren’s stomach sliding back up his side to trace the pulse point in his neck.

“I think you should too,” Mishima says quietly, and Ren’s assessment about Ryuji being half asleep proves to be incorrect when Ryuji sits up so fast Ren thinks he given himself whiplash.

Mishima turns on his back, laughing as he goes, and that familiar dizzy feeling that Ren gets when he sees Mishima smile comes rushing in as Ryuji plants a hand on the underside of Mishima’s jaw and presses quick dry kisses to Mishima’s forehead and cheeks and nose.

“Think he meant his mouth, Ryuji.”

Ryuji smiles as he presses a kiss to the place right underneath Mishima’s eye, still crinkled as Mishima laughs. “’m gettin’ there.”

Mishima wraps his arms around Ryuji’s neck and hums. “Not getting any younger here, Sakamoto.”

Ryuji presses another kiss to Mishima’s cheek, and Ren sits up on his elbows to stroke idly over the little spot on Mishima’s stomach where his shirt has ridden up. “You can call me Ryuji y’know,” He says into Mishima’s skin. “Actually, you should.”

Mishima takes a shaky breath Ren can feel under his fingertips. “Isn’t that… kind of embarrassing?”

“Would it be better if we called you Yuuki?” Ren asks, and the hand on Mishima’s stomach stops. He feels like pressing, like teasing Mishima is like he always does, but just waits instead, hopes this isn’t the thing that scares him away.

“…maybe?” Mishima says, and it sounds more like a squeak. His face is going red again, and Ryuji’s kisses to his face slow down as he works his way towards Mishima’s mouth.

“Yuuki,” Ren says, and pushes his hand just under the hem up Mishima’s shirt, feels the warm skin of his stomach, the light-colored hair that trails down under the hem of his shorts.

“Yuuki,” Ryuji murmurs, and kisses the corner of Mishima’s mouth.

Ren wants to touch more, but he still feels like he’s on unstable footing with Mishima, so just leaves his hand on Mishima’s skin and waits. It’s getting harder to breathe, and he can definitely feel arousal starting to curl low in his stomach, even if he and Ryuji are just sitting still now, waiting for Mishima to do anything.

“It’s still embarrassing,” Mishima says, and Ren feels like they’ve pushed him too far, asked too much too fast, but Mishima is turning his face, burying his expression in the pillows at his side. “Ryuji,” he mutters, and Ryuji turns to him with a huge grin stretching across his face. “Ren,” Mishima adds, and Ren feels the adoration in his heart for Mishima explode.

“Caught him,” Ren says, and leans up to kiss Ryuji.

“ _Ren_ ,” Mishima sighs again, when Ren pushes his hand further up Mishima’s stomach, rucking his shirt up past his bellybutton. Ryuji is smiling against his mouth, hand coming up to curl in the hair at the back of Ren’s head.

Ren’s hand finds the edge of Mishima’s loose shorts, dips his into the edge of the waistband so Mishima can feel his thumbs against the jut of his hipbones. “Do you want me to stop?” Ren asks, leaning closer to Mishima’s face. He’s still got his reactions buried in the pillows. Ren sees him shake his head. Ren presses the edge of blunt nails into Mishima’s skin and draws back a little, revels in the hiss Mishima lets out. “Wanna hear you say it.”

“Don’t stop,” Mishima exhales, voice a little breathy, and turns to Ren can see his face. His eyes are half shut like he’s going back to sleep, but Ren can see his rapidly dilating pupils, watches the way his chest moves up and down too fast under Ryuji’s shadow.

Ren pushes his hand into Mishima’s shorts a little further, finds the little valley his hips make against his legs and digs his thumb in. He doesn’t want to push Mishima too far—for his physical and emotional sake—but Mishima arcs up into his hands like Ren’s pulling on a string.

“Kiss me again?” Mishima asks, voice warbly around the edges, and, really, who is Ren to say no?

“You sure this is okay?” Ryuji asks, and Ren feels a hand brush against his against Mishima’s skin. “We don’t have to, if you’re uncomfortable.”

Mishima shakes his head, dislodging Ren from the slow rhythm of his mouth, so Ren trails sloppy, open mouthed kisses down Mishima’s jaw and towards his neck, stopping to scrape teeth against Mishima’s skin. “No, it’s okay, I want—” he gasps when Ren’s hand leads Ryuji’s towards his cock, strokes over his length once, twice. “I want, _ngh_ , whatever you’ll give me.”

“Wanna give you everything,” Ren says into his skin, isn’t sure if he means now or in general, but finds it’s true either way.

Ryuji’s hand leaves his and Ren opens his eyes to watch his hand slide past Mishima’s waistband and slide up the flat plane of his stomach. He knows Ryuji is pushing over one of Mishima’s nipples when Mishima’s throat flexes under Ren’s mouth and he whines, slow and drawn out.

“Fuck,” Ryuji swears quietly, and Ren adjusts his hand, presses his fingers up Mishima’s cock as it fills out, digs his teeth in harder to Mishima’s skin.

“Do that again,” Ren says, and swipes his thumb over the sensitive head of Mishima’s dick, slicks his hand up with precum, makes Mishima let lose another one of those slow whines. Ryuji is loud like this too, Ren knows, but Mishima’s voice is higher, a little less solid in his throat.

Ren leans back on his elbow again to watch Mishima’s face, tries to catalogue the little scrunch in his eyebrows, the soft line of his mouth. Mishima’s mouth is open on a permanent breath, like he can’t be bothered how to remember how to breathe any other way.

He catches Ryuji’s eye, morphs his face into Ryuji’s same smile, and slows the pace his hand is moving up Mishima’s dick.

“D-don’t,” Mishima stutters, and his eyes slide open slowly, his bottom lashes a little shimmery with gathering tears. Ren wants to kiss them off of his eyes but wants to watch him more, eyes the pale expanse of his throat when Ryuji catches one of his nipples again and he tilts his head back, makes a fluttery little _ah_! Noise.

“Don’t what?” Ryuji asks, and pushes his shirt up higher, exposes Mishima’s flushed chest.

“Don’t… hng… don’t! I don’t know, I can’t—”

Ryuji leans down and catches Mishima’s mouth again, and Ren pulls his hand off of Mishima’s cock to sit up properly, tug the edge of his shorts past his hips and about halfway down his thighs. Ren takes note of his handiwork, appreciates the look of Mishima sprawled out under them, shirt pushed up to his chin and pants halfway off of his legs, before he rearranges so that he can sit on his knees and smooth one hand over Mishima’s stomach when he slicks the other up Mishima’s dick again.

“Ryuji,” Mishima pants when his mouth is free, shifting so he can prop up on his elbows. Ryuji just puts a hand against Mishima’s chest, keeping him pinned against the bed.

“Don’t move,” Ryuji says, and the hands he puts on Mishima’s shoulders slide down his chest and just sit around Mishima’s collarbone. “We’re supposed to be taking care of you, right?” Ren watches Mishima nods, twists his hand around his dick, slows the speed of his strokes down to a crawl.

Ryuji’s hands move appraisingly over every piece of skin he can touch, mouth open on little exhales. “If we were at my house, I could fuck you,” he says, and Mishima’s hands slide against his bedsheets like he needs to reach out for something stable. “Bet you don’t have any lube or anything.”

“ _No_ ,” Mishima says around a groan, and Ren knows Ryuji probably isn’t teasing him on purpose, even if it comes across that way. Ren would laugh if he wasn’t as disappointed as Mishima is.

Ren feels the hand Mishima had between them on the bed knock against his knee, and then slide up the top of his thigh. “Lemme,” he says, words slurred again, an arm thrown over his face but his eyes fixed squarely on Ren’s lap.

“What do you want?” Ryuji asks, and smooths Mishima’s hair back.

“Lemme touch you,” Mishima says, and the edges of his fingertips brush against where Ren is achingly hard in his pants.

Ren nods, and goes to unbutton his jeans, slide within Mishima’s reach on the bed. “You too,” Mishima says, and Ren sees his hand on Ryuji’s chin.

Ryuji hums like he’s thinking, and Ren feels the hand he has on Mishima’s dick squeeze too tight when Mishima pulls him out of his underwear. Ren barely hears the keening noise Mishima makes over the sound of blood rushing in his ears.

“Wanna suck me off?” Ryuji asks, and the hand he’s carding through Mishima’s hair slides down Mishima’s face. Mishima nods enthusiastically, though the hand he has wrapped around Ren’s length curls tentatively, like he’s not quite sure what to do.

Ren leans down to kiss him while Ryuji shifts around, presumably trying to get his pants past his hips. The angle is weird, and Ren’s wrist is starting to hurt, but the way Mishima is panting into his mouth, kissing like he can’t put any thought into anything other than stroking his hand up and down Ren’s dick in short, jerky movements is overriding any discomfort.

“Yuuki,” Ryuji says, trying to get Mishima’s attention, and Mishima shivers so hard Ren think’s he’d feel it from a different part of the house.

Ren leans back starts moving his hand across Mishima with increased fervor, his own orgasm sitting low in his stomach.

He tries to watch Ryuji feed Mishima his dick through it, but the sensory overload is threatening to make him come too fast, especially the adoration in the way Mishima is looking up at Ryuji.

Ryuji slides all the way into Mishima’s throat and groans, and Mishima looks no worse for wear, eyes going so heavy lidded he looks like he might fall asleep. “Dude, do you not have a gag reflex?” Ryuji asks, and Mishima’s expression twists into one of confusion. Ren watches Ryuji’s hips give a short, aborted rock, and openly gapes when Mishima’s only reaction is to blink a little bit, and adjust his jaw.

“Holy shit,” they say together, and Ren puts his hand over Mishima’s on his dick because even though Mishima has stopped moving, Ren thinks if he starts up again, he’s definitely going to come.

“Hey,” Ryuji says, and strokes a hand over Mishima’s jaw, split wide, and up towards his hairline. “I’m gonna try and fuck your mouth, is that okay?” Ren watches Mishima’s eyes widen a little bit, and then he does his best to nod, and Ren thinks he might flex his throat a little bit because Ryuji makes a sound like he’s been punched.

Ryuji holds Mishima’s face while he rocks into his mouth, and Mishima’s hips buck into Ren’s hold and he realizes he’s just been holding still this whole time, and he jerks his hand suddenly, and can hear the way Mishima moans around Ryuji’s cock, and Ren hisses, feels Mishima’s hand stroke over his shaft and up his head, and Ren realizes almost belatedly that he’s coming, watching the prickle of Mishima’s tears pop up at the edges of his eyes.

“Breathe through your nose, there you go,” Ren hears as he’s riding out the last of his orgasm through Mishima’s hands, and when Ryuji purrs, “Good boy,” he isn’t quite sure who’s swearing that loud until he realizes it has to be him.

“ _Yuuki,_ ” Ryuji purrs, and Ren tries to remember how to work his hand well enough to get Mishima off when he feels Ryuji’s hand close over his. “Hold on, move back, I’m gonna come—”

Mishima slides off of Ryuji’s dick and flops his head back down onto the bed, sighing loudly and then curling into himself a bit as Ren feels his dick jerk and he comes onto Ren and Ryuji’s knuckles and the bottom of his stomach, and then he whines when Ryuji comes onto his chest, murmuring some amalgamation of their names.

Ren tries to catch his breath and props himself up with his come-free hand, trying not to collapse over Mishima. Ryuji seems to have no qualms about that, however, tilting sideways and crashing into the bed. He curls around Mishima, groaning about something Ren can’t quite make out, and Ren guesses he’s on cleanup duty.

By the time he gets Mishima and Ryuji wiped down, he feels exhausted all over again, like he hadn’t just woken up less than an hour prior. He finds his spot on the bed again, and snuggles up next to Mishima, trying not to let the way Mishima breathes into his neck when he turns into Ren’s body tickle too badly.

“Hey,” he says, when Mishima blinks up at him blearily for a moment or two. He jerks his head towards the TV on the floor. “What are those?”

“Hmm?” Mishima asks and lifts his head enough to be able to see them. “Oh! Those are the teams we’re playing this season for volleyball. I got my hands on some recordings of their official matches.”

“Are you in any of them?”

Mishima flushes. “Yeah, one or two.”

“We should watch them later.” Ren says, and pulls Mishima in closer to his chest.

Ryuji murmurs, “I like volleyball.”

Ren feels Mishima’s smile against his chest. “That sounds fun.”

Ren smiles back. “Make it a date.”

When he gets a text message from Ryuji within a few hours of leaving Mishima’s place that he thinks he’s running a temperature, Ren tries to find it within himself to be surprised.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still not sure if I loove the way this came out, but I'm happy I wrote it! I have one more Mishima/Ryuji/Protag thing written out and then maybe some other stuff for p5? Idk
> 
> As always, my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/tobi_yos), if you wanna hear me talk about anime and give scarce updates on fics. Or if you want to bully me!


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